Shares of Tesla Inc fell more than six percent Friday after the ‘armored glass’ windows on its newly unveiled electric pickup truck shattered during a demonstration.
The sharp drop wiped $768 million off Elon Musk’s estimated $23.6 billion fortune, Forbes reports, after the embarrassing moment in which the CEO was heard muttering ‘oh my f***ing God’ as the glass smashed.
In the much-anticipated unveiling to cheering fans late on Thursday, the Tesla boss had taken aim at the design, power and durability of mainstream trucks, only to be shaken when his boast about his new vehicle’s windows backfired.
The company’s shares fell to $333.41 at the close play Friday.
Tesla’s share price fell by more than 6% Friday, wiping $768 MILLION off Elon Musk’s fortune after the embarrassing moment ‘shatterproof’ windows on its electric ‘cybertruck’ smashed
Tesla design chief Franz von Holshausen tried to prove the glass was ‘shatterproof’ by throwing a heavy metal ball at close range – but the glass broke on both attempts
Head of design, Franz von Holzhausen, cracked the driver’s side window with a metal ball in a series of tests for the crowd at the event in Los Angeles.
Musk allowed von Holzhausen another throw to the rear passenger window, only to see that crack as well.
‘It didn’t go through, so that’s a plus side,’ Musk said, adding: ‘Room for improvement.’
Musk singled out the Ford F-150, the top-selling vehicle in the United States, to highlight the capabilities of the Cybertruck, showing an edited video of the two trucks in a back-to-back ‘tug-of-war’ in which the Tesla truck wins.
Shares of Ford and General Motors rose about two per cent. General Motors’ first electric pickup will go on sale in 2021, around the same time as Tesla’s, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra told investors on Thursday.
‘Musk has been enthusiastic about his Blade Runner-inspired design for months, but we were still surprised how futuristic he went with this one and believe it may shatter his dreams,’ Cowen analysts wrote in a note.
‘While we are pleased to see Tesla enter the most profitable segment of the North American passenger car market, we do not see this vehicle in its current form being a success.’
Musk was embarrassed during the live demonstration when the truck’s windows shattered
The U.S. pickup truck market is one of the world’s most profitable vehicle segments and is dominated by Ford, General Motors Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) .
To show off the robust design of the new pickup, Musk asked von Holzhausen to take a sledgehammer to the side of the vehicle, whose exterior will be made from the same stainless steel used in the Starship rocket developed by Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company.
The crowd cheered when the hammer bounced off the surface without leaving a mark.
But Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader, said Musk was trying to sell too much – a new technology and an outlandish design.
‘There are fans out there who’ll buy anything with a Tesla badge on it, but this will unlikely pierce the meat of the truck market,’ Brauer said. ‘Tesla is putting up too many barriers for people nervous about stepping out of their comfort zone.’
The shattered glass was the second embarrassing mishap for Musk in as many days, after the first full-size prototype of the SpaceX Starship rocket exploded during pressure testing on Wednesday.
The ‘Cybertruck’, which looks like an armoured vehicle with a futuristic angular body in gunmetal grey, will go into production in 2021, Musk said at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Thursday.
Online reaction to the botched demonstration and the truck’s design was swift and savage
The pickup, which Musk said will cost $39,900 and up, will have an estimated battery range of up to 500 miles.
Online reaction to the botched demonstration and the truck’s peculiar design was swift and savage.
‘OMG. In the history of presentations, this has to go down as one of the worst gaffes. Elon is presenting in front of a truck with shattered windows, after a glass breaking test goes wrong,’ one Twitter user wrote.
‘It’s like redneck RoboCop designed a truck,’ another wrote.
Many compared the truck’s angular design to a doorstop, the short-lived Pontiac Aztek, and primitive 3-D video game graphics.
One Twitter user said that she ‘would feel like a goon driving around in it.’
The ‘Cybertruck’, which looks like an armoured vehicle with a futuristic angular body in gunmetal grey, will go into production in 2021, Musk said at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Thursday